


A single Feather

by Silvaxus



Series: Crow's Saturday Facebook Prompts [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angelic Possession, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, M/M, Saturday prompt, angel feathers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-10 08:57:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13498758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvaxus/pseuds/Silvaxus
Summary: A single golden feather was everything that was left of the archangel Gabriel and this feather followed Sam through everything





	A single Feather

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys :)
> 
> I really have a run this month with posting my shit *grin*
> 
> This is another part of the sabriel prompts by Crow NoYami on facebook. She did the editing as well.

 

**A Single Feather**

 

It was after the event at the hotel, after Lucifer slaughtered most of the pagan gods, after Gabriel stood up to his own brother so Sam and Dean could escape. They were sitting in the Impala when a sudden pain ripped Sam apart from the inside until he blacked out, only to wake up two hours later in an unknown motel. The moment Sam woke up he knew something was wrong. 

 

He waited until Dean fell asleep that night after too much alcohol and  a  heavy silence. Sam fished the Impala’s key s out of Dean’s pocket and drove back to the hotel. The moment Sam stopped the car he knew he was too late. The  structure  was nothing but rotting wood and debris, holes all over the building. Sam’s heart became heavy when he walked into the building and after a short search; he found the room again, where he saw Gabriel  for  the last time. 

 

When Sam stepped into the room his heavy heart stopped beating for a long second. Sam dropped to his knees next to the wings burned into the ground. Sam knew, he could feel it, that these wings didn’t belong to Lucifer and there had only been one more angel in the hotel when the devil arrived. Tears, hot and heavy, ran down Sam’s face as he stared at the wings  which  marked the death of an archangel. With shaking fingers, Sam followed the lines of the feathers that were nothing more  than  black marks burned into the floor. An archangel died for his failures…

 

Sam didn’t know how long he was kneeling on the floor when he felt something move around him. He looked around but there was nobody else.  Suddenly  something  moved  right in front of him. 

 

A single golden feather fell, glowing with the light of an archangel’s grace. The feather fell onto the floor and the weak glow died down when it touched the burned feathers. Immediately, Sam grabbed the feather. Careful as not to  crush  the last piece of the dead archangel. Sam pressed the feather to his chest, close to his heart and his tears started to run even faster. Now he had a  proof  Gabriel was dead for no angel would show a human his feathers. 

 

At some point, Sam dragged himself back to the car, the feather  tucked  safely into the inner pocket of his jacket. He didn’t hear any of the angry words Dean threw at him for taking the Impala. Everything in Sam was too numb to care.

 

Whenever everything became to heavy and too much Sam would find himself a silent place to hide and he would take out the feather. It didn’t matter that he had touched the small feather many times, the small piece of the dead archangel remained the same. Soft and golden, and sometimes Sam liked to imagine the feather was warm when he touched it.

 

The small feather stayed with Sam through the whole apocalypse. Even when he agreed to be Lucifer’s vessel, the small feather was  tucked  into the inner pocket of his jacket. When Lucifer  controlled  their shared body, Sam had no other choice but to watch and listen to what Lucifer was doing, but the moment Lucifer found the golden feather, Sam’s soul battered against the cage Lucifer had  built  in his own mind. 

 

Lucifer had killed the archangel with the golden feathers and Sam would  not  be a silent passenger and let the devil destroy the last piece of Gabriel. Sam battered and fought against Lucifer’s control and he managed to make his hand move. He forced his own hand open and Lucifer was either too surprised or too deep in his own mind, but the feather dropped to the floor when Sam managed to open his hand. Lucifer shoved Sam back into the cage he built and caught the feather with a careful hand. Lucifer looked at the feather for a long moment while Sam roared and fought against the hold Lucifer had around him. 

 

Only when Lucifer snapped up a small case made of a dark red wood did Sam stop to really look. Lucifer opened the cage and placed the feather inside on a bed of soft black velvet. He closed the case and  tucked  it back into their pocket. 

 

When Sam was back in his own body and mind after his time in the cage, he had forgotten about the case with the feather inside for a bit. Sam remembered when he threw his jacket on a chair and the landing was louder than it should be. The moment Sam held the case in his hands; everything came back to him in a rush and Sam simply… broke under the force of his memories and  emotions . He vanished for two days and Dean didn’t ask him  any  questions when he was back, and Sam didn’t offer any answers. The bond between the brothers was broken to a degree where they couldn’t trust each other anymore. 

 

So many things had happened and there where times now where only the feather in the wooden case was Sam’s only company. Especially after their fight with the Leviathans. Dean and Cas had managed to take the  alpha  out of the picture and ended up as collateral damage. At first, Sam thought his brother and the angel had died in the battle, but later Sam found out that both were still alive… and trapped in Purgatory. 

 

Sam tried so many things to free them, but nothing worked and with every futile try, his hope s died more and more. 

 

It was kind of ironic how Sam was about to leave this world. He was looking into another piece of information of opening a gate to Purgatory when Sam ran into a pack of hellhounds. He fought them off and killed them, after the y ripped him to shreds and now Sam was lying on the dirty floor of a rotting house in the middle of nowhere bleeding to death. He was about to die the same why his brother died, for the first time anyway. With shaking and bloody hands, Sam fished the case out of his pocke t and opened it to grip the feather with far more force than usual and for the first time in a long time, Sam started to pray even when he kn e w nobody would listen.

 

“Hey Gabriel, I’m sorry. I never wanted you to die for me. Nobody should die for me. Not you, not Dean, not Cas and now I’m on my own and about to die for real this time. That’s good I think. I don’t know where I will go when I’m finally dead. I was in Heaven once and I have my doubts I will be welcome there. I know what Heaven and Hell look like now, and torture and pain is something you expect in Hell…  but  Heaven was worse. Maybe I’m not human enough anymore to go either way and I will go to Purgatory. This way I could help our brothers to find a way back home and I could stay where I belong, with the monsters.” 

 

Sam started to cough, and more blood covered his shredded chest. “I’m sorry I let you down and you had to die for me… you were never like the rest of the angels, Cas was very much like you, doing the right thing. I hope… I hope you are at peace wherever you are. I was never able to find out where angels go when they die but I hope you are happy, Gabriel. I never had the chance to tell you… I love you Gabriel. From the moment you were nothing more than a janitor I loved you and because of my foolishness, you died without ever knowing. Maybe you would  have  laughed it off. Why would an archangel want the love of a broken human? But I’m about to die and nobody is here…so, these are my last words to you Gabriel. Thank you, Gabriel. For everything you did for me and for everything you tried to make me see…” 

 

Sam’s mind was blurry at the end and his body started to shut down. His eyes were heavy, and he was cold… so unbelievable cold. Time to go… Sam wasn’t fighting the darkness creeping up on his mind. He had no trouble  admitting  he was tired. Right before the last string of Sam’s mind could slip into the darkness, a warm and soft feeling pushed the darkness away. Something warm and close to burning touched his face and Sam opened his heavy eyes to look up. A smiling Gabriel looked down at Sam, his eyes golden from the glow of his grace. “Am I dead now that you are back Gabriel?” But Gabriel smiled, and his shoulders shook with silent laughter. “No kiddo. It’s me being alive again and not you being dead. I don’t know how but you managed to bring me back. My grace is still weak, and I can’t heal you like this completely and bring our brothers back. I need your help.” 

 

Gabriel helped Sam back into a sitting position. His body still hurt in  everywhere  and he could still see some of the deep marks the hounds had ripped into him. “You could bring them back? From Purgatory?” Gabriel nodded but even in his weakened state Sam could tell how tired Gabriel looked. “I can but it’s not easy and I need your help or we have to wait until I’m back to full power and this will take some time.” Sam stared at Gabriel for a moment, his mind still foggy but it dawned on Sam what Gabriel was asking of him. 

 

“You need me as your vessel to open a gate to Purgatory.” Gabriel looked almost embarrassed when he lowered his eyes. “Like this… I’m still too weak to do anything remotely useful but with you… you were made for my brother who is far more powerful than I am. Your body may be weak now, but your soul is not. Your soul is one of the most bright and powerful souls I have ever seen. You would give me the boost I need to bring us to Purgatory and back. The moment we are back I will leave you immediately, I swear it upon everything I am, Sam. I will not stay any longer than necessary.” 

 

Strangely, Sam trusted Gabriel, Sam never trusted Lucifer. Even when the other archangel stayed true to his word to never lie to him. “Okay Gabriel, okay. Let’s go to Purgatory to bring our brothers back.”

 

Gabriel looked at Sam in surprise and Sam  merely  smiled at the archangel, before Sam pulled him into a kiss full of  longing . The archangel groaned low in his chest and opened his mouth to the hunter. It was a feeling of warmth and love and comfort and when Sam pulled back he whispered  two  word s against Gabriel’s lips. “Yes, Gabriel.” A bright light blended Sam before the taste of honey surrounded his senses and a feeling like sunshine ran over his body. It felt completely different to have Gabriel in his body than with Lucifer. 

 

Together, they opened a gate to Purgatory and stepped through. The moment  an  archangel and hunter landed in Purgatory, their presence was like beacon to every monster. They rushed to them and together they slaughtered their way through Purgatory. They found Cas first and it took them some time to convince the seraph that it was not Lucifer inhabiting Sam’s body. Together, the three of them found Dean a couple of days later and it took a lot of pursuing  from  Cas to make Dean believe that this was indeed his brother giving Gabriel a piggy back ride. 

 

Gabriel stayed true to his word and brought all of them back to earth and when everyone was sa f e he was about to  vacate  Sam’s body when he found himself unable to leave.

 

“Don’t leave right now, Gabriel… just… stay for a bit longer? I… I’m tired and I just want to rest for a bit. You can stay… I trust you with myself and my brother. Just don’t play too many tricks on him.” Gabriel was stunned by these words and after Sam spoke a few tired words with his brother, Sam let himself fall into the grace of the archangel in his body. As the feeling of deepest trust rushed through Gabriel’s grace, the archangel dropped to the floor.

 

Sam chose to rest for almost a month before Gabriel became aware of his active mind again and Gabriel offered to go, but Sam asked him again to stay. 

 

A day became a week, a week became a month and a month became a year and not once did Sam ask Gabriel to leave. Together, archangel and hunter watched the world through their eyes and when Dean accepted his bond with Castiel, the four looked out for the world together. 

 

They watched humanity change and evolve under their protection. They watched humankind leave the Earth behind to look at the stars and play in the darkness between the light. 

 

At the end of everything, with the sun a giant red ball of fire in the sky, they sat together on the highest mountain. Humanity had left the Earth many generations ago, but the two hunters and their angels stayed behind. When the last moment of the earth arrived, Gabriel gripped all of them tight and brought them back in time with a snap. 

 

Together, they were once again at the bunker in Lebanon, Kansas, in their own timeline and they started their watch again. They guided humanity through times of light and darkness. Changed its way in subtle but important ways to lead humanity to the stars.

 


End file.
